Aleurocybotus, Quaintance & Baker

Martin, Jon H., 2005, Whiteflies of Belize (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Part 2 - a review of the subfamily Aleyrodinae Westwood, Zootaxa 1098 (1), pp. 1-116 : 10

ALEUROCYBOTUS Quaintance & Baker

Aleurocybotus Quaintance & Baker, 1914: 101 . Type species Aleurodes graminicola Quaintance, 1899b: 89–90 , by original designation.

DIAGNOSIS AND COMMENTS. Adults are the most reliable stage for generic diagnosis: antennal segment VII bears a pair of long apical filaments in males ( Fig. 1 ), and a single such filament in females ( Fig. 2 ); each foot, in both sexes, has a single smooth true claw and a more fleshy claw­shaped appendage which bears minute spinules ( Figs 5– 6 )—this appendage may be the modified paronychium which is not otherwise evident ( Russell, 2000). Major puparial characters include: body elongate, margin finely toothed and not modified at thoracic tracheal openings ( Fig. 8 ); cuticle pale but often brownish medially; longitudinal and transverse moulting sutures reach puparial margin; antennal bases located anterolateral to fore legs; submedian abdominal depressions present, often pronounced; vasiform orifice cordate to triangular, lingula exposed but included in the orifice ( Fig. 7 ). Members of this genus have been recorded feeding only on grasses.

Bink­Moenen (1983) had opined that Old World and New World species included within Aleurocybotus were likely to represent different genera. Russell (2000) concurred and proposed a new genus, Vasdavidius , to accommodate the five Old World species formerly included in Aleurocybotus , following studies that clarified the unusual adult characters discussed above. Species now included in Aleurocybotus are only known from the New World. One new species from Belize, whose puparia unusually produce copious woolly secretions, is here described.

Figures

FIGURES 1–8. Aleurocybotus cereus sp. nov. 1, adult male, antennal apex; 2, adult female, antennal apex; 3, adult female, abdomen, lateral; 4, adult male, abdomen, lateral; 5, adult male, single claw and claw­like?paronychium; 6, adult female, single claw and claw­like?paronychium; 7, puparium, posterior dorsal detail (see Fig. 86 for photograph); 8, puparium, cephalothoracic plate with inner margin of glandular zone indicated by dashed line, and one glandular cluster shown.